Hi, I'm new to the forum. Recently, I've been talking with a person who was I previously knew was religious. We somehow discussed about buddhism which made me learned that he was an extreme religious fanatic. So I decided to knock some sense into him by using logic and reason.

However, no matter what I said he kept saying I had to go to a buddhist "course" before he would talk to me. Additionally, he also refused to explain WHY I should go and declined to explain WHAT will happen if I did. Ironically, I told him that when I was a child I had been forced into these "courses" countless times and I even once became a monk (due to my parents). However, he said I didn't tried hard enough.

Afterwards, whenever I try to explain ANYTHING to him he simply sticks his fingers into his ears and say "Go take the course and then we'll talk." So I believe he thinks somehow "converting" me back into buddhism will bring him into nirvana or bless him with great dharma.

I view buddhism as a very infections "plague" in my country which greatly impedes our economic growth and productivity of our citizens since buddhism views anything that is materialistic as a sin and that we are somehow destined to live alone in the forest and also considers farming, hunting, animal domestication or anything that causes inconvenience to any other animals as a great karma. So, if everyone in the world followed buddhism, I am confident that mankind will definitely starve to death.

Could anyone give me any suggestion on how to knock some sense back into his mind? This is extremely frustrating and I hope to somehow persuade him back to become a rational, logical being.

(22-05-2013 06:53 AM)beamthegreat Wrote: Could anyone give me any suggestion on how to knock some sense back into his mind? This is extremely frustrating and I hope to somehow persuade him back to become a rational, logical being.

In my experience this is not possible. People's minds change when they themselves get curious and reject the answers they've always accepted without question before. Someone trying to force the process tends to make them even more convinced that they are right.